The Music, Makes and Musings of Irish folk singer/songwriter Fil Campbell on the road and at home

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

The Architect's Apprentice

My blogging friend Hilary, who's blog Positive
Letters...Inspirational Stories is always full of information, recently posted about renovations to
Canterbury Cathedral which she got to see up close - check out her post about
it here. It's a wonderful insight into a great and historic building.

It reminded me of this book which I've just
finished. The Architect's Apprentice is written by Elif Shafak and tells the
story of a young boy called Jahan and a snow white elephant which he befriends,
and the journey and life the two have, getting to the Palace of the Sultan in Istanbul, where Jahan eventually falls in love with the
Sultan's daughter and becomes apprentice to the great Architect Sinan.

I didn't realise it when I was reading it that many
of these characters actually lived - and eventually in his old age, Jahan
becomes the Chief Architect who builds the Taj Mahal whilst his teacher and
master Sinan was responsible for many of the fine buildings still standing in Istanbul today.

There were six of us: the master, the apprentices and the white elephant. We built everything together. Mosques, bridges, madrasas, caravanserais, alms houses, aqueducts . . .

I think about Istanbul every day. People must be walking now across the courtyards of the mosques, not knowing, not seeing. They would rather assume that the buildings around them had been there since the time of Noah. They were not. We raised them: Muslims and Christians, craftsmen and galley slaves, humans and animals, day upon day. But Istanbul is a city of easy forgettings. Things are written in water over there, except the works of my master; which are written in stone.

Beneath one stone, I buried a secret. Much time has gone by, but it must still be there, waiting to be discovered. I wonder if anyone will ever find it.

If they do, will they understand?

It's a compelling story with great characters, not
least of which is the white elephant Chota.It’s a story of building and destroying bridges, and of building things
as a parallel to how we, or others, build our lives.

I must confess that my reason for buying it in the
first place was the cover of the book - full of exotic colour and pattern, a
picture of a world I've only seen very little of (many moons ago when I lived
in Dubai for a few years).But I'm glad
it found it's way into my line of vision - it was a thoroughly enjoyable read
and perfect for picking up at night when there wasn't time to do long bouts of
reading. The story stayed very alive.

3 comments:

Hi Fil - thanks for mentioning me and I'm glad the post resonated so well. This book does look so interesting - fascinating to know about ... it's on my TBL and later on TBR list ... I agree the cover does entice. Cheers Hilary

This sounds very interesting. The people, cultures and what they believe. I always enjoy learning about the History and story of other people's lives. I've been trying to email you and thank you for your visit and comment but am having a difficult time. Especially via phone while I'm visiting my daughter. I always appreciate it when you come by! And i'm sure that a grouping of your small cans would look very charming all rusty and filled with flowers! :)Have a wonderful weekend.

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About Me

Hi and welcome to my wee corner of the world.
I'm Fil and I'm a singer, occasional songwriter, voice coach, choir director and broadcaster.
On this blog I share some singing related tips; songs transposed for women to sing; info about old singers and songs; stories from my tours and basically anything that interests me as I go about making a living as a singer.